A man climbs into the refrigerator to get milk at a Walmart store in Rosemead, California on November 22, 2022.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images
Inflation rose in October roughly in line with estimates, sending a sign that price increases are at least stabilizing, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
The Core Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index, a gauge that excludes food and energy and is favored by the Federal Reserve, rose 0.2% for the month and 5% from last month. a year ago. The monthly increase was below the Dow Jones estimate of 0.3%, while the yearly gain was in line.
The gains also represent a deceleration from September, which saw a monthly increase of 0.5% and an annual gain of 5.2%.
Including food and energy, the overall PCE increased by 0.3% on the month and 6% on an annual basis. The monthly increase was the same as September, while the annual gain was down from the 6.3% pace.
The ministry also reported that personal income jumped 0.7% for the month, well ahead of the 0.4% estimate, and spending rose 0.8%, as expected.
While the Fed considers a wide range of measures to measure inflation, it prefers the PCE index because it takes into account changes in consumer behavior such as the substitution of cheaper goods for more expensive items. This is different from the consumer price index, which is a crude measure of price changes.
Policymakers view core inflation as a more reliable measure because food and energy prices tend to fluctuate more than other items.
In other economic news Thursday, the Labor Department reported weekly jobless claims stood at 225,000, down 16,000 from the previous week and below the estimate of 235,000.
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